|
Books, a lecture from Kane, and a minor dose of pain |
|
|
|
|
|
|
I picked myself up, as Kane grabbed Aqua as she was about to open the door. “I forgot to mention something,” Kane said simply.
“Forgot to mention what,” Terra asked.
“To mention a few things that you all need to know,” he replied as he moved Aqua out of the way and opened the door.
The library was huge. The walls were lined with books as high as it could possibly go. A couple ladders were around the room to reach up to the higher shelves, there were tables set up in a circular pattern with a marble statue of an angel with its wings spread in prayer in the center of the room, and light filled every corner of the room from a giant crystal in the ceiling. Sure, the room was made of reeds and wood, but it doesn’t feel like a library. It feels like a church, a church of books.
Aqua was in total awe, as she wandered in. “There’re so many books,” she gasped. “Where do I start!?”
Even Ruby, Terra, and I were tempted a little. Then Kane started with another explanation, “You can find anything from comics to history books here and then some, and that includes books on anything lost on Earth like languages and answers to pretty much anything.”
“Anything,” Eric burst. Oh great, here he goes again. “How about porn, drugs, or body counts?!”
“Yes. It has all of that,” Kane replied calmly.
The feeling of the place being a church suddenly vanished from the air, but everyone else’s eyes suddenly lit up. What was porn doing in a library?
“Porn,” I muttered in shock.
“Kane,” Terra said a little uncomfortably. “What are those books doing here in the first place?”
“This library is constantly adding more and more books every second,” Kane pointed to a set of stairs leading downward. “The library itself is also expanding as more and more things happen on Earth. So, it archives everything.”
“Then everything means everything,” Aqua shouted as she ran to grab a book.
“Aqua,” I called out, “calm down!”
She reached for a book, but she couldn’t remove it from the shelf. “What,” she cried in disbelief.
“Did I forget to mention you need a library card to even look at the books,” said Kane simply, “and the cards can only be issued by the librarian?” Aqua began looking left and right for the front desk. “Don’t bother. There’s no desk, and the librarian has been on vacation for seven hundred years, since the sun and moon stopped moving.”
Aqua, and the rest of us, instantly lost our excitement. These books can’t be read? All because of a library card?
“Everyone sit down over there,” Kane pointed to a table in front of the angel statue.
“I thought we came here to fight,” grumbled Chris, “dammit.”
“Get over it already,” said Ruby a little brightly. “At least we don’t have to study.”
We sat down at the table, and Chris put his feat up.
“Alright,” Kane started again, “don’t interrupt me.” Kane was on the inside of the circle around the statue. “It’s time for that geography lesson.”
Eric and Chris rolled their eyes.
“There are four main cities in this world: Torrentia, Ambrace, Aeros, and Charlo. We’re in Torrentia, the city of water and knowledge or sometimes the town of torrents. Ambrace is northeast of here across the mountains and in the forest. Aeros is to the south in the cliff over looking the ocean. And, Charlo is on an island in the west. Each city is known for certain reasons. For example, Torrentia is known for this library, because it has information on everything.”
Aqua’s eyes lit up again at the mere mention of that. Well, at least she forgot about the nautical Japanese school uniform she was wearing.
Then Kane raised his finger, “No, I don’t have a library card.”
Aqua sank in her chair. Then she tried to say something.
“No, I don’t know where the librarian is, and we are not reading any of the books on these shelves. So, stop with the questions.”
Aqua’s eye began twitching insanely. Chris just smirked, and the rest of us started scooting our chairs as far as we could from Aqua. I hope Chris realizes he’s sitting right next to Aqua in one of her bad moods.
“However,” Kane continued as he stepped next to the angel statue, “there are a set of books that are an exception to the rule, because they are not about Earth.”
We all looked at him strangely. What could not be about Earth here, if everything was about things from Earth?
Kane took the sword attached to his back and smashed the statue with the flat side of the sword. Then he reattached the sword to his back. “These are half of the set,” he said coolly as he kneeled down and brought three thick books from the rubble of the statue. “This one goes to you,” he handed a hardback leather book to Terra who stared at it blankly. “This is yours,” he handed a deep blue book to Aqua who opened it and started reading intently. “And, this one belongs to you,” he handed me a book in a soft white cover. “All three of you are going to read those in the next ten minutes, and you will have them completely memorized, too,” his voice went serious again.
My mouth dropped, “We’re supposed to read all of these and memorize it!? It’s got to be six hundred pages by the very least!” There’s no way I can do this.
“Give me until tomorrow,” Aqua interjected as our attention turned to her in a silent stare.
“Open your book,” said Kane as he reached into a pouch at his side.
I opened it, but all the pages were blank! What the heck? “It’s blank.”
Everyone looked at me in an odd way, as if to say, ‘Are you blind?’
“Hm,” said Aqua, “that’s odd, ‘cause mine’s not.” Then she began to read a few lines aloud, “Leviathan, master of wisdom and guardian of water, it embodies a gem called the Serpent’s Sapphire.” She turned her attention to everyone, “These books are about the gems we have, so how come yours is blank? Even Terra’s has something in it, right, Terra?”
“Yeah,” Terra responded, “and there’s a picture of a woman, too.” She held up the book to show everyone a picture of a woman in long flowing robe wearing a crown of leaves, “It says that her name is Gaea, the loving mother and protector of earth, and that she resides in something called Eternal Gem.”
“So then, why is mine blank,” I asked Kane.
“Because,” he was still feeling around in that pouch for something, “your book has a few dangerous things in it that shouldn’t be known to most people.”
“Like what?”
“Um,” Ruby started, “what are you looking for, because, that pouch is only as big as your hand.”
“This pouch can hold things up to ten times its capacity, so looking for something is a little hard,” said Kane a little annoyed.
“Can I get one, too,” Eric jumped again.
“Eric,” Terra said calmly. “Remember the backpack incident?”
Eric had the bright idea to put all of his books into his bag one day, and I mean all his school books and a dictionary. Later on that day, his backpack broke, and his books landed on someone’s foot as he walked by. We had a lot of trouble getting him out of that mess.
“Ah,” Kane grinned under his mask, “here we go.” He pulled a dagger out of his pouch, and seized my right hand and pressed my palm to the blank pages. “Make an oath,” his eyes sharpened.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Aqua and I started shouting, as I tried to pull my hand from him.
Terra’s mouth dropped, Eric had that look of speechlessness on his face, Ruby was frantically looking for something blunt, and Chris was kickin’ back in his chair. Seriously, what kind of friend is Chris!?
“Just make an oath so we can get this over with,” his grip tightened on my wrist, as the others stared in shock.
I knew this guy was unstable!
‘No, he’s not,’ a voice echoed in my head.
Not this again.
‘Don’t worry I’m not the first voice in your head.’
Now I’m worried.
‘Just say you’ll get your friends home safely.’
Who are you?
‘I’ll tell you later, after I block out the other voice.’
“Well, Alexander,” said Kane still gripping my wrist, “what will it be?”
“I,” I started. “I swear I’ll get my friends home safely.”
“Alexander,” everyone shouted instantly.
“Done,” shouted Kane as he raised the dagger high into the air.
He wouldn’t really…
The blade’s tip was rammed through the back of my hand, and the blood ran over the pages.
 Levias · Wed Aug 16, 2006 @ 08:30am · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
